20220729 A DEFICIENT BUT GENUINE FAITH
29 July, 2022, Friday, Ss Martha, Mary and Lazarus
First reading | 1 John 4:7-16 © |
Let us love one another, since love comes from God
My dear people,
let us love one another
since love comes from God
and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,
because God is love.
God’s love for us was revealed
when God sent into the world his only Son
so that we could have life through him;
this is the love I mean:
not our love for God,
but God’s love for us when he sent his Son
to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.
My dear people,
since God has loved us so much,
we too should love one another.
No one has ever seen God;
but as long as we love one another
God will live in us
and his love will be complete in us.
We can know that we are living in him
and he is living in us
because he lets us share his Spirit.
We ourselves saw and we testify
that the Father sent his Son
as saviour of the world.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God lives in him, and he in God.
We ourselves have known and put our faith in
God’s love towards ourselves.
God is love
and anyone who lives in love lives in God,
and God lives in him.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 33(34):2-11 © |
I will bless the Lord at all times.
or
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
I will bless the Lord at all times,
his praise always on my lips;
in the Lord my soul shall make its boast.
The humble shall hear and be glad.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
or
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Glorify the Lord with me.
Together let us praise his name.
I sought the Lord and he answered me;
from all my terrors he set me free.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
or
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Look towards him and be radiant;
let your faces not be abashed.
This poor man called, the Lord heard him
and rescued him from all his distress.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
or
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
The angel of the Lord is encamped
around those who revere him, to rescue them.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
He is happy who seeks refuge in him.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
or
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Revere the Lord, you his saints.
They lack nothing, those who revere him.
Strong lions suffer want and go hungry
but those who seek the Lord lack no blessing.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
or
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn8:12 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me will have the light of life.
Alleluia!
Gospel | John 11:19-27 © |
I am the resurrection and the life
Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said:
‘I am the resurrection and the life.
If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,
and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?’
‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’
A DEFICIENT BUT GENUINE FAITH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 JOHN 4:7-16; JOHN 11:19-27 OR Lk 10:38-42]
Today, we celebrate the memorial of Ss Martha, Mary and Lazarus. The gospel is taken from John when Jesus visited Mary and Martha on account of the death of His dear friend, Lazarus. Jesus earlier on upon receiving the news of Lazarus’ illness “stayed two days longer in the place where he was.” (Jn 11:6) From Martha, we learn how our faith in the Lord, even if it is deficient, is accepted by the Lord. The Lord patiently helped Martha and us to grow in faith. This has always been the case of Jesus in dealing with His disciples, including the apostles.
In the gospel of Luke, Jesus taught Martha on the need to know her priorities. We are all like Martha, very busy in doing good. This is true even for priests, religious and all devout Catholics. We genuinely care for people, for the poor and the suffering. This is of course not wrong. Indeed, as the first reading reminds us, our love for God must be expressed in our love for our neighbour. “My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love.” So there is no question of the necessity to express our love for God through our concrete ways of loving and serving our brothers and sisters.
Yet, when the Lord told Martha, “you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her”, He was clearly not saying that Martha’s work was not important. Rather, whilst Jesus appreciated all that she was doing to make our Lord feel welcome and comfortable at their home, Mary had chosen the better part. In other words, Mary knew her priorities. She knew that at that point in time, what the Lord needed most, and was best served, was for His disciples to sit at His feet to listen to Him, as opposed to busying themselves with His material comforts. What the Lord desires of us most is our intimacy with Him as He did with His apostles. Like all His apostles, we are called to be with Jesus, to stay with Him and to learn from Him. Only then can we be ready to be sent out.
In the gospel of John, in spite of the fact that Jesus did not come earlier, Martha continued to have faith in Jesus as the agent of God’s mercy. When our Lord reached their home, “she went to meet him” whilst “Mary remained sitting in the house.” Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.” Martha’s faith in Jesus was not yet that of the Son of God, for she regarded Jesus as God’s messenger and an intercessor. Her faith in Jesus was still defective as she had not yet come to the fullness of faith in Christ as the Life and the Resurrection. She still made a distinction between God and Jesus. Nevertheless, her faith was genuine because she believed that Jesus could heal Lazarus through the power of God. She did make a statement of fact when she said, “even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you”, which implied raising Lazarus from the dead.
In fact, her faith in our Lord was firm and strong. Although she was somewhat disappointed that the Lord did not come earlier, she continued to have confidence that the Lord knew what He was doing, especially when the messenger would have told her what the Lord said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (Jn 11:4) Even the Lord’s delay did not make her give up hope. She continued to believe that Jesus was the intermediary of God’s mercy and power. She was not shaken by His apparent indifference or lack of urgency. Martha’s faith in Jesus is surely an inspiration for us all when we feel that God is indifferent to our prayers and sufferings when we seek His help and mercy. We are called to trust in Him and believe that all things will work out for our good.
However, the faith of Martha still falls short of what the Lord would have wanted Martha to arrive at. When our Lord said to her, “‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.'” The response of Martha was again not wrong. She was expressing the common faith of the Jews in the future resurrection. However, Jesus was referring to the foundation of this belief in the future resurrection. This would be anticipated by the resuscitation of Lazarus, which endorsed Jesus as the resurrection and the life. But she must first recognize that the basis of the future resurrection lies in the fact that Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
Jesus identified Himself with the resurrection and the life. He said: “I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” In calling Himself as the “I am” Jesus declared Himself to be the Life-giver. Jesus does not just give life, but He is life itself. Later on, Jesus would tell Thomas, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (Jn 14:6f) Jesus is the ground for faith in the resurrection of the body.
Furthermore, faith in Jesus is the basis. Our relationship with the Lord transcends physical death. Death does not interrupt the life that comes with faith in Jesus. So long as we are in union with the Lord Jesus, we will find life on earth and hereafter. Our relationship with the Lord continues even after death. St Paul wrote to the Romans, saying, “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” (Rom 14:7-9) So our Lord was not just speaking of the resurrected life that is to come but the fullness of life here and now as well. What is critical is that we find life in Him already in this world through our relationship with Him.
Then came the ultimate confession of faith. When the Lord said to Martha, “Do you believe this?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who has come into this world.'” This confession of faith is tantamount to Peter’s confession of faith in our Lord when He said in similar terms, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Mt 16:16) Yet both Martha and Peter, whilst getting the terms correct, did not really understand the full import of it.
Confession and comprehension of faith are two different things. Indeed, this is the case for many of us. Although we all recite the Creed every Sunday like a parrot, not many of us can explain the articles of faith which we recite. For many of us, it is merely a confession which we have been taught and which we remember by rote. But few of us ever take them seriously as to understand what we are professing. And even if we do, can we really confess what we proclaim with our lips in our hearts? In other words, is our faith in the Lord adequate, complete and genuine? Indeed, this is the basis and foundation for living out the Christian life. “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God. We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves. God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.”
Consequently, what is critical for us to come to fulness of faith is our encounter with the love of God in our lives. “God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him: this is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.” Truly, it is not so much our love for God but His love for us in Christ Jesus. What Martha and the apostles had yet to discover is the love of our Lord for them. This full realization could only come at His passion, death and resurrection. Until then, their faith remained genuine, strong but deficient. We too must also deepen our faith, to go beyond mere doctrines and beliefs to a personal conviction of the person and identity of our Lord.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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